The present disclosure relates in general to electro-optical interfaces for transmitting optical signals through fiber optic cable systems. In particular, apparatuses and associated methods of assembling electro-optical interfaces and transmitting datalinks via fiber optic cables are described herein.
Active Optical Cables (AOC) include cables that transmit signals over optical media. The AOCs may include separate circuitry that facilitates the transmissions along the optical cables with transceivers including one or more transducers. For example, modern AOCs may use vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) to emit light through the fiber optic cables as their electro-optic transducers.
The primary failure mode of AOCs is random failures in the transducers. Traditionally, these transducers were a single point of failure for the AOC, requiring the entire transceiver to be replaced, which requires substantial time, loses substantial bandwidth, and requires large inventories of components in large datacenters.
Applicant has identified a number of additional deficiencies and problems associated with conventional AOC connectors and other associated systems. Through applied effort, ingenuity, and innovation, many of these identified problems have been solved by developing solutions that are included in embodiments of the present invention, many examples of which are described in detail herein.